XOOPS 2.3.1 Web CMS: CAPTCHA, DHTML and Bugs

The XOOPS Project has released the newest version 2.3.1 of its open source Web CMS. Only two weeks after the release, the company has reported over 5,000 downloads already. Better yet, the new release has some awesome features necessary to keep XOOPS at the top of the list. Some bugs are still there as well.For those unfamiliar with XOOPS, it stands for eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System and is a widely-used open source Web CMS. Built to work with PHP version 4.3+ (PHP 5 highly recommended), MySQL 3.32+ and any server supporting the required PHP version (although Apache is recommended), XOOPS offers power, ease of use and some excellent extended features.

New Features of XOOPS 2.3.1

The new release of XOOPS offers a large amount of changes aimed at both developers and users. Major improvements include the addition of CAPTCHA for added security against spam, the Extended Profile Module and the DHTML as default. Below are some of the highlights of the version. For a full list of new features click here.

XOOPS 2.3.1 Features for Developers

* Custom frameworks support such as PEAR and Geshi
* Support for editor packages, including FCKeditor and TinyMCE
* CAPTCHA built into XOOPS core
* New Control Panel GUI is introduced with option for custom Themes

XOOPS 2.3.1 Features for Users

* Default character set encoding has been changed to UTF-8
* CAPTCHA is enabled for registration and comment system
* Most visual editors are available, incl. FCKeditor and TinyMCE
* Extended Profile module
* Private Messages Module
* Extended DHTML as default

XOOPS 2.3.1 Issues and Problems

Some of these changes may have effects on non-UTF-8 sites after upgrading. Alongside these potential problems, the XOOPS Project also says on its blog “…We are aware that there are still small glitches/bugs here and there, and therefore we appreciate your help in finding them and helping us fixing them.”
So there have been a lot of additions to the new version of XOOPS, but apparently some issues with it as well. Despite this, there have still been over 5,000 downloads of the new version. What does all of this mean? It means that they are working on solving the problems and looking forward to future XOOPS 3.0.